See Beautiful

We are pleased to be joining the See Beautiful blog hop today, along with Sugar the Golden Retriever who is generously donating $1.00 to See Beautiful's non-profit of the month, St. Anne's Center - Lantern House PET AREA for everyone who joins the blog hop today.  Isn't she awesome?

I've learned a lot of lessons from my animal companions over the years ... 

Lessons in loving passionately and wholeheartedly even when you know the heartbreak of loss is waiting, unseen but keenly felt, down the road ...

Lessons in patience, when trying to communicate in a loving way with creatures who don't speak your language ...

Lessons in the joy that is yours when, through that patience, you forge a close and loving relationship, and a shared language, with another creature ...

Lessons in tolerance, when blending together animals of different species, personalities, and life histories into a harmonious family unit ...

And perhaps most of all, lessons in being aware that the many precious moments we share with them are, when strung together, the individual pearls in a luminous necklace of memories that help to in some small part sustain us when they have gone on ahead ... 

As one of my personal heroes, Ferris Bueller, was wont to say, "Life moves pretty fast ... if you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." 

Our animal friends are masters in the art of never forgetting to stop and look around.  They can spend 30 minutes intensely sniffing a single blade of grass.  When they feel the sun warm on their heads, they never fail to raise their heads skyward, schedules and deadlines be damned ... the better to soak in the blessed, healing warmth.  They love passionately and unreservedly, with no thought for any day of reckoning or loss that may be waiting somewhere beyond the horizon.  That may well be because they aren't capable of the foreknowledge of death, but I choose to believe that it's also because they would rather focus on sucking every possible drop of joy and beauty out of the present than on pointlessly worrying about the future.  

For these reasons and so many others, the two dogs and three cats I am so privileged to share my life with are beautiful beyond all words to me, and it never fails to amaze me that one of the reasons I'm so lucky to have them is because the beauty I see in them, that is all too obvious to me each and every day, was somehow not recognized by others.  Which is those people's loss, whoever and wherever they might be, and my inestimable gain.  

So this post is for Tucker, for Olivia, for Tanner, and Phoebe, and Finn ... 

My sweet and beautiful friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for enriching my life each and every day with the beauty of your love, companionship, and abiding affection.  I can't imagine what I could have done to deserve it, but I am forever grateful, and although I know you will never read these words, I hope you somehow feel my love for you all, as I feel yours for me.  I believe that you do.  

Good News / Bad News (Phoebe Vet Visit Update)

Phoebe can't really decide which expression to wear this morning.  Should she smile like this ... 

Or should she instead wear her pouty face ... like this?

The reason she is undecided is because we heard back from the vet yesterday afternoon and the good news is that Phoebe's urinalysis and bloodwork came back picture perfect.  She does not have a UTI, bladder infection, or any other medical issue that would explain the recent episodes of peeing on the floor.  That's the good news, and is certainly reason to smile.  The bad news is that since there is nothing medical to explain these episodes, it has to be behavioral.  IE - Phoebe has an aversion to going outside to pee in the rain, and has decided to pee on the floor in the house instead.  And while I must admit that I would not enjoy peeing in the rain either, neither do I find Phoebe's proposed alternative to doing so acceptable.  

So until the rain stops, well, raining, Phoebe will be spending the nights in her crate as opposed to in our bed.  She did so last night, and as, thank goodness, I have always made a point of building and maintaining positive association with the crate, she went in willingly, bedded down happily, and spent the night there without a whimper of protest or complaint.  She did wake up about thirty minutes earlier than my alarm was set to go off at 6:30 am, because she urgently needed to pee, which she did in spite of a light drizzle.  

I got a comment and an email or two about using puppy pads when it rains.  I know a lot of people use these, and that's fine.  For city dwellers with smaller dogs, I can see how these would make life a lot easier for all involved.  And if that were my situation, or if Phoebe were a puppy, a senior dog, or were ill, I would happily make use of these pads.  As it stands, though, she is none of these things.  We have a suburban house with a spacious fenced yard, and she also goes on frequent walks, so as unfortunate as it is, until she can learn to use the toilet, she's going to occasionally have to go outside and pee in the rain.  I already scoop three litter boxes on a daily basis.  I'm not going to add picking up soiled pee pads to my list of daily chores unless there is a valid reason to do so.  Unfortunately for Phoebe, I don't consider her stubbornness a valid reason.  Also, even though those pads are treated with a pheremone that is supposed to encourage the puppy/dog to eliminate on them, there is still training involved in getting the dog to actually use them.  I just can't justify expending effort and time training Phoebe to do something I don't want her to do.  

On the up side, the weather is changing and as of November 1st, our rainy season will be essentially over.  So in a few more weeks this should be a moot point anyway.  Meanwhile, if it rains during the day, Phoebe will be spending the nights in her crate.  Fortunately, she doesn't really mind this all that much.  

Vet Visit

Phoebe went in for an unscheduled vet visit this morning.  As far as I know she is fine, but in the past ten days she has peed on the floor three times in the night.   This is really not like her, and if it hadn't coincided with some very rainy days (as I've already written, Phoebe really does NOT like to go out and dispatch her "business" in the rain) I would have been more concerned, but I was pretty sure that she was just being a snotface.  I consider basic housebreaking to be the first order of business with any new dog or puppy, and barring illness or advancing age, once mastered, I expect it to be solid.  At five years old, Phoebe is neither a puppy nor a senior dog, so I was, I'll admit, rather miffed, but neither was I particularly concerned that anything might be wrong.  The third incident, though, which happened last night and was discovered at six thirty this morning when I awoke, concerned me.  

Phoebe had a persistent UTI and demodectic mange when I adopted her as a six month old puppy, and while she hasn't had any trouble with it recurring, it crossed my mind that a UTI might be the issue so we hustled through our morning routine and made it to our wonderful vet's office right as they were opening (and they kindly squeezed us in right away so that I was only five minutes later for work, bless their hearts!), to see what was what.  They took a urine sample (no blood in her urine thank goodness) and the urinalysis is pending (we should hear tomorrow morning).  While we were in there, I had them do baseline blood work as well as she hasn't had blood drawn since before she was spayed a week or two before I adopted her.

I've got fingers crossed that all is well with the blood work, and there's really no reason to think that it won't be, but I will admit that I am halfway hoping she does have a UTI or bladder infection, or something else minor, not life-threatening, and easily fixable) that could explain this recent behavior.  Nothing else would seem to, and I can't think of any other reason a solidly housebroken dog would suddenly "lose" her house training in this way.  (If anyone else can, please let me know!)  

I will of course post the results of the tests when I have them.  Meanwhile, Phoebe, as expected, is milking the oh-so-traumatic experience of an early morning vet visit for all it's worth.  

See what I mean?

New Recruit

Hi, everybody!  It's me, Phoebe!  Tucker's taking the day off of work today, so I am responsible for breaking in the new recruit!  

You've all met my Uncle Riley before ... but usually he's just hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa's, eating birthday cake and wearing silly glasses!  But Grandma & Grandpa are on vacation for a few days, and Uncle Riley is staying with us.  So Mom brought him along to work with us today, to help me out here at the office.  Since my main job is looking cute, I can't imagine why she thought I could use any help with THAT!!!

But anyway, he's here, and I think he did pretty good for his first day on the job.  Plus, it was fun to boss my uncle around!  

I think I'M ready for a promotion!

Night, everyone!

Two-fer Tuesday With Tucker & Phoebe

It is sunny and HOT here in Tampa on the longest day of the year!  (North of the equator, anyway!)  Happy Summer Solstice, everyone! 

Wordless Wednesday with Phoebe

Happy Memorial Day!

Hi, everyone ... it's me, Tucker.  (And Phoebe and Cosmo and Uncle Riley) ... wishing all of you a Happy Memorial Day. 

And to all of our retired and active service men and women (and their families), thank you for your service.  We appreciate your courage, and the many sacrifices, large and small, that you make to keep us safe.  We should not need a day on the calendar to remind us that freedom is never free. 

We're not lost ...

Our Mom's just really super lame these days.  Did you happen to notice that all the pictures/videos in our last three blog posts were taken in Mom's office?  There is a reason for that - and it's because we've basically been living there the last couple of weeks.  Now, I am as dedicated an employee as anyone ... and more so than most ... but I am getting fed up.  There are other things in life besides work ... and plus, helping Mom at work so much has forced me to neglect my blog and miss out on visiting our friends as much as I like to.  And, I'll just cop to this right now ... Remington, I promise that we haven't eaten any of your treats or played with your toys, but Mom has still not gotten to the post office to mail your package.  Olivia is mortified, as I am I.  And even if I have to put the bitey on her, like our friend Spitty suggests, I will make sure that it goes out on Tuesday.  (Well, ok, I won't bite Mom - I just couldn't.  It is not in my gentle nature to do such a thing.  BUT - if I have to mail it myself, I promise on my honor as a canine, that it will be in the mail on Tuesday.  Promise!)

So anyway ... Phoebe, Cosmo, Aunt K. and I are at Grandma & Grandpa's for the holiday weekend and we've been really busy playing with our Uncle Riley.  On Monday we're going to have a BBQ - I'm looking forward to that.  Maybe tomorrow I can get Mom to take some pictures of us to post so you don't forget what we look like.  But right now, Phoebe and I are tired ... and I think we're going to have to go to bed now.

Night night!

P.S.  Spitty, Olivia sends her love.  She, Tanner, and Finn are home getting "sat on."  They are not happy.  Then again, they wouldn't be happy if they were here, either.  That is one of the troubles with cats.  They are only happy when Mom never goes anywhere.  But of course that means that then Phoebe and I don't get to go anywhere either ... so since I love to travel, staying at home being sat on is just something they have to deal with every now and then.  Mom left lots of treats and nip, so I think they'll survive till we get back. 

What we do ...

Hi, everyone ... it's me, Tucker!  Sometimes people (and pups) wonder what it is that we do at work all day.

So we shot this short video so you could see Phoebe and me hard at work ...

Have a great day, everybody!

* Mom note - In watching this video it sort of looks like Tucker is mauling Phoebe, or that she is not enjoying the play session.  In fact, this was about thirty minutes into the session and she was getting tired, but previous to this had been tearing around like a Tasmanian devil.  Trust me, she always gives as good as she gets, and she loves to roughhouse! 

What happened to my tail?

Hi, everyone!  It's me, Phoebe! 

So Mom took this picture of me today ... and I thought it was pretty good ... except that my tail came out all blurry!  See?

And I was like ... what is going on?!!!!!!!!!!  What is wrong with my tail?!!!!

But then I remembered ... this happens to our friend Caroline sometimes, too!  It is called RTS (restless tail syndrome).  So it's all ok. 

Monday Memories ...

Happy Monday, everyone!  It's me, Phoebe.  You know, a few months ago, I wrote about my Gotcha Day.  And then over the weekend, Mom was looking through some old pictures, and found this one of me when I was only seven months old and had only been in my forever home for about two months. 

As you can see, my coloring has changed a little bit since then.  There used to be a lot more silver and black in my coat.  And in this picture Mom had not yet gotten up the nerve to cut my curl .  Also, I was a lot littler then ... I was pretty underweight when I got adopted and I was only about six pounds in this picture.  Now I weigh nine and a half.  Mom says I really should probably weigh about nine pounds optimally, so I'm currently on a diet.  Pffft!!!!

Happy Spring!

Hi, everyone ... it's me, Phoebe!  Just popping in to wish everyone a Happy Spring!

Strolling and Sunning on Sunday ...

Hi, everyone ... it's me, Tucker!  It's been a nice, relaxing couple of days this weekend, and the weather has been gorgeous with blue skies and cool breezes.  Here in Florida, it won't be too very long before we're complaining about the heat and humidity, so days like this are really precious and it's nice when they fall on a weekend so we can really take advantage of them. 

The cat kids have been outside on the porch since early this morning, stalking lizards and doing cat stuff ... and Phoebe, Mom, and I just got back from a nice walk ...

Olivia ... relaxing.



Tanner - enjoying a nice stretch ...





Finn - watching Mom

Phoebe  - looking for squirrels ...

Phoebe and me ... relaxing on the wooden bridge ... 

 Phoebe and me - in front of the Garden Club gate ...



Have a restful Sunday, everyone ...

Saturday Chill-Fest

Happy Saturday, everybody!  It's me, Phoebe!

And I'm just chillin' out today ... how about you?

 Have a super Saturday everyone!

Applause, applause, applause!

Hi, everybody!  Phoebe here with exciting news ... our new pal, Shiva, just got her glamour shots back from the photographer!  Doesn't she look great?  

Hey ... I wonder why Mom doesn't take me to get some glamour shots of my own?  I think I'm going to go ask her right now. 

Me - wondering why I don't have glamour shots of my own